I was gonna ask where Queens of the Stone Age fit in 
I was like you with rap for the longest time. But then I started to hear all sorts of wonderful invention, with rhythm, instrumentation, tone colours, production and lyrics (once you get beyond the usual, well-worn cliches about gangstas, guns, hos and so on. It’s now, after forty or so years, as vast a field as jazz or rock. If you were talking to someone with zero knowledge of those genres, where would you begin? Anyway, happy hunting. I hope you find some cool new sounds.
And do try Until The Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus, and Malibu by Anderson .Paak.
Peace out.
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If ok with you folks, I’ll continue with the recommendations here.
Interesting window on what’s happening elsewhere in today’s Guardian.
Based on the headline, its utter tosh as, at least for me, free streaming services such as uTube and Spotify are far better tools for discovering new music than anything since the times when record shops abounded in every High Street, and I could select any record and ask them to play for me to listen, and do that all day.
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You didn’t clarify whether you like theatre. If you do, then I suggest the best way into opera is not via a record/CD/music file, but live. Given your main preference for not sure exactly what opera to suggest: perhaps Verdi’s music is close enough then I suggest his La Traviata (a tragedy is a good place to start), or if more dramatic orchestral music is OK for you, Puccini’s Turandot or La Boheme. If you really don’t like tragedies, or would prefer a different style then perhaps Rossini’s Barber of Seville. I haven’t explored Mozart’s operas enough to know whether or which to recommend, but I’m not keen on operas that do dialogue between singing, very much preferring fully sung (=fully musical).
BUT - a big but - go and see it sung in the original language, with English surtitles (sometimes subtitles, or on a screen in the back of the seat in front of you), and not an English Language version. This is important because aside from hearing as intended, you don’t spend your time straining to make out the diction, but instead in a glance understand what is being sung allowing you to focus on the sound and the emotion in the voice. The orchestra, conductor and fame of the singers are not important, nor is tge scale of the performance.
If a live performance is really not possible, then a large screen playing of a live opera recording - some local arts centres etc do “live” streaming of operas, otherwise if you have a projector at home the New York Met offers online streaming, with a huge library of past shows, though I suggest not going back too far in time as quality is less good. My suggestion of large screen is to get as close to the real thing as possible, and of course in darkness with no distractions
I have described my own experience being captured by opera in another thread:
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply and advice. I have not been an active theatre-goer, perhaps maybe 35-50 over a lifetime, but have been fortunate to experience NY’s broadway, musicals in London and Toronto, Shakespeare in Stratford (Canada) and the Shaw in Niagara on the Lake. Preference for comedy over tragedy, and I sometimes struggle with musicals when actors spontaneously burst into song.
I have been toying with setting up a proper home theatre, and you may have helped push me to that end.
I dislike most musicals for precisely that reason. Ones that sing the whole dialogue or virtually all to me are really operas (I don’t know the official distinction)
How about (American) Minimalism? This often involves repetitive patterns or pulses and sometimes drones. The instruments of a classical orchestra are sometimes augmented. I heard Terry Riley ‘In C’ (1964) The version by Bang on a Can 2001 was especially engaging.
Steve Reich, ‘Different Trains’ Kronos Quartet (1988) String quartet and tape.
(Kronos opened my ears to many kinds of contemporary classical music)
John Adams ‘A Short Ride in a Fast Machine’ I’m fond of Simon Rattle’s CBSO recording.
I think these all open the door, if you like these then Louis Andriessen (not American, but Dutch), ‘De Staat’ - more challenging and dissonant.
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Tsk Tsk 
Did I say something naughty? Can’t see it.
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Had a listen to both, Anderson .Paak definitely softer around the edges and pretty much as you describe. I’ll dig in further. Couldn’t find much in Flying Lotus, to me it seemed at times like Rick Wakeman on a bender. I do appreciate the suggestions. And 
on the new avatar!
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Definitely more ecumenical 
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Aye, much less divisive, ken, an’ much mair Glesca gallus.
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“Flying Lotus, to me it seemed at times like Rick Wakeman on a bender. I do appreciate the suggestions”
You should write for “The Guardian”
Nurse with wound. Rupture.
An album that could be a gateway down to the rabbit hole of weirdness.
NWW has issued some 60+ albums…
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But wouldn’t that rule out Mozart’s Magic Flute? Many would call that an opera.
Roger
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I con’t k ow the official distinction between musical and opera - I just know I don’t like spoken dialogue/ acting breaking spontaneously into song, preferring one or the other
Saw the news just, Loretta Lynn’s Van Lear Rose produced by Jack White introduced me to playing more country music. I have no idea if this is characteristic of country music or not. I’ve investigated many of the other musicians Jack White has been involved with.
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Mahler/Death in Venice.
Wasn’t really fan of classical music but watching Death in Venice film with the hauntingly beautiful music of Mahler made me buy an album and become more inquisitive about the genre and have found the more obscure selections to be the most satisfying.
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I will reply this one in multiple individual post as I have worked myself through multiple genres and sub genres throughout the years. My first deliberate exploration of something new came when my brother insisted that I would need to listen to something which would be insanely good. I was at that time very much into the usual popular styles on the radio, but was especially interested and fan from Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin…… the introduction however was connected to Pink Floyd The Wall……
And I didn’t get my brother and started to do what I did multiple times since then…., when I am not in something I am exposing myself hardcore to it by listening to multiple albums in the genre or I run a certain recommended album multiple times. It took me at least 20 times of the wall to start appreciating the wall. And of course in the meanwhile it’s one of the very much appreciated albums. Funny fact my since 10 years ex wife was running this one grey while she was studying (So it was her background soundwall).
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